Richard H. Serlin

I have always had a wide range of interests: business, mathematics, politics, sociology and more. An interest in business and mathematics drew me to finance, and today's epidemic of financial distress drew me to personal finance, as this is an area where one can have a great positive impact in both research and teaching. Also, it's an area that's very broad and interdisciplinary, fitting my wide range of interests and my desire to understand the bigger picture.

Areas of expertise:

Personal Finance

Investments

Corporate Finance

General Business

Entrepreneurship

Econometrics

Research Focus:

I am a rare generalist in today's greatly specialized academic world, and this wide-angle focus is necessary to give good personal finance advice, as the area is so broad and interrelational. Thus, I research and study advanced mathematical finance, corporate finance, behavioral finance, economics (both macro and micro), psychology, sociology and more.

One piece I'm proud of is a letter I published in The Economists' Voice in 2006, a journal edited by a Nobel Prize-winning economist. This letter stated an important reason for the existence of significant market inefficiency that I had not seen explicitly in the literature. The insight is especially significant in light of the financial crisis of 2008.

Current Projects:

Director and chief content provider, The University of Arizona Free Personal Finance Site